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• Australia has joined the UK and Canada and officially recognised a Palestinian state. Portugal followed soon after and reports are that France is set to follow on Tuesday. Australia’s recognition comes with conditions, including that the Palestinian Authority must recognise Israel’s right to exist, disavow Hamas and agree to hold democratic elections. (CNN)
  
  

• In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “There will be no Palestinian state”, and threatened reprisals against countries that recognised Palestine while also accusing Australia of rewarding terrorism. (AFR)
  
  

• Australian gold miners had a great day yesterday as the gold price sat near a record high at US$3,694 per ounce having risen for the past 5 weeks. Leading the charge was Genesis Minerals up 14% and Greatland Resources up 12%. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Warren Buffett has done it again: making more than 3,000% on his investment in BYD. As Chinese electric vehicles rose in prominence, Berkshire Hathaway invested $230 million in BYD in 2008. However, after watching that investment rise to $9 billion by 2022, Berkshire has now completely sold out of BYD. (CNBC)
  
  

• More details are being revealed about the deal to sell TikTok’s US operations. President Trump has said News Corp’s Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch as well as Dell’s Michael Dell are expected to be investors. (ABC News)
  
  

• President Trump’s hand-picked Fed governor has come out and said the US Central Bank should cut rates 5 more times by the end of the year. He also said that he isn’t seeing “material inflation from tariffs” (Quartz)
  
  

• News agency Reuters has been tracking how companies around the world are responding to tariffs. It notes that the total impact reported by companies is $34 billion so far, with 108 companies publicly announcing price hikes. (Reuters)
  
  

• French left-wing lawmakers (who are essential votes for France’s new Prime Minister) have proposed a wealth tax. It would see people with more than €100 million (A$178 million) in assets taxed 2% of their wealth annually. Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury giant LVMH, called the proposal “deadly for our economy”. (AFR)

What the…?

The US state of Wyoming has become the first American state to issue a stablecoin. The state’s Frontier Stable Token will be backed one-to-one by US dollars and is intended to offer citizens and businesses the ability to more easily transact digitally.

The ability for a state to issue stablecoins was unlocked by the passing of the GENIUS Act earlier this year. More states, as well as large companies like Amazon and Stripe, are expected to follow Wyoming’s lead. (Quartz)

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Stocks, property or crypto: Which has been the best for Queenie Tan?

This is an excerpt from an interview with Queenie Tan on Get Started Investing (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

Ren: So property, stocks and crypto, you've invested in all three. What do you reckon has been the biggest contributor to that net wealth number that you were sharing earlier?

Queenie: That's a really good question. I've actually run the numbers, which was really interesting. So I was just curious to see which one had actually made me more money over the past five years. Was it stocks? Was it property?

The two bedroom apartment that we bought was actually a home to live in, so there were so many perks of being first home buyers. We didn't have to pay stamp duty because it was less than the stamp duty threshold, which was amazing. And then of course, we didn't have to pay rent anymore because we were living in that property.

Because of those two factors, property actually slightly outperformed the money that I've made through stocks and share investing.

But if I were to run the numbers as if that unit was an investment property from day one and I didn't get the stamp duty exemption and I still had to pay rent, then stocks would've outperformed property. I really think it kind of goes to show that they're both really great investments and it's just important to get started.

Prefer to watch this conversation? Every Get Started Investing episode is posted in full on YouTube. Check it out:

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